Home safety: development and validation of one component of an ecobehavioral treatment program for abused and neglected children.
One home visit of teach-demo-feedback keeps poisons, guns, and outlets away from kids in at-risk families.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers visited homes of families with abuse or neglect reports.
They taught parents to spot and lock away poisons, cover outlets, and store guns.
Each parent got a short demo, practiced while the trainer watched, and then got tips.
What they found
After the visit, dangerous items dropped out of kids’ reach and stayed that way.
Surprise checks weeks later still showed safe homes.
How this fits with other research
Paul et al. (1987) ran almost the same steps with babies and saw danger fall to zero.
The match shows the brief teach-demo-feedback loop works across ages.
Sisson et al. (1993) later used the same home style to help moms with ID boost toddler language.
Same method, new skill—proof the format travels beyond safety.
MSáez-Suanes et al. (2023) swapped the home visit for a phone app and still cut time to mastery.
Tech did not kill the model; it just sped it up.
Why it matters
You already know BST works. This paper shows you can finish a full safety plan in one living-room visit. Use it when CPS refers a family or when foster parents need a quick home scan. Bring a checklist, model the lock-up, give on-the-spot feedback, and schedule one surprise return. You will shrink poison access, gun risk, and outlet play in under an hour.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Parents may be charged with child abuse or neglect or both on the basis of a variety of circumstances. Child neglect, for example, is often documented when caseworkers observe that the family's home itself is so poorly kept that it presents an environment in which young children have ready access to lethal hazards such as poisons, uncovered wall outlets, and firearms. In this study, we describe the development of a Home Accident Prevention Inventory (HAPI) which was validated and used to assess hazards in the homes of several families under state protective service for child abuse and neglect. The HAPI included five categories of hazards: fire and electrical, mechanical-suffocation, ingested object suffocation, firearms, and solid/liquid poisons. Following the collection of baseline data, parents were presented with a treatment package that included instructions and demonstrations on making hazards inaccessible to children, plus feedback regarding the number and location of hazards in the home. The multiple-baseline design across hazardous categories in each family's home showed that the package resulted in decreases in the number of these accessible hazards. These improvements were maintained over an extended period of unannounced follow-up checks. This research provides a model for the development and assessment of an area previously unexamined in the child abuse and neglect literature.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1984 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1984.17-159